Darcy Coates has written quite the murder mystery novel! A group of people go on a winter trip to a reclusive and exclusive lounge. Along the way the bus is stopped by a downed tree. People go exploring while others chop and remove the tree.
Unfortunately, some people get lost. The tour guide tries to carry on but the bus is stopped by the arrival of a sudden storm. All are found and rounded up to a cabin save one person still missing.
Then things begin to turn an awful way. People are dying, murdered in fact, heads on trees.
Very well done. Kept me guessing. Did not want to put it down. I recommend.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me this ARC.

Dead of Winter by a Darcy Coates
Publishing Date 07/11/23
Rating (5/5) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this ebook arc. Loved it! This one was so intense! I did not want to put this one down. This is a must read !!!

A trip gone terribly wrong, with gruesome results. Coates takes us to a barren place in the mountains, following a group of people taking a leisure trip into the Rocky Mountains to Blackstone Lodge. Christa and her boyfriend, Kiernan, are two of ten people, counting their bus driver and tour guide. A downed tree causes what should be a temporary halt while the bus driver cuts it into movable pieces. While waiting it out, Kiernan talks Christa into taking a little walk with him, showing off country he grew up with, and having a moment alone. When it becomes obvious that the weather has taken a turn for the worst, and Kiernan is at a loss on where they are, the pair turns around to try and find their way back to the bus, and safety.

The weather shifts, they become lost, and as they search, they lose one another. Christa, thankfully, is found by the group on the bus, who had all been stranded as well, and taken back to a cabin found by the guide. From there it's too short days of bad weather, and increasingly bad tempers, and night after night of murders and mayhem. Making it out alive might be too lofty a goal for Christa, but she has to try.

Fans will be shocked at how big a leap this book was into horror as a genre for Coates. I've always called her style Cozy Horror, safe for basically anyone who wanted a little spook. This book goes full bore on the details, the gore, and descriptive terror. Solid four star read, and looking forward to more like this!

This was such a great read! It really kept you on the edge of your seat and kept you guessing until the very end. I thought that I knew who the killer was but then boom...I didn't see that coming! As also, Darcy wrote a great mystery! I highly recommend this book and any book written to Darcy!

Let me just say that I was very proud that I predicted who the killer was! I'm not going to lie, Darcy made me doubt the hunch I got while reading through the book but I shouted a loud YES once the killer was revealed lol.
This was a great read overall. The story was a bit drawn out but the book started out great, the middle was a bit eh for me but once you reach the ending, it picks back up again and you will be very surprised once everything is revealed!

A group embarks on what is supposed to be a relaxing retreat for a two week stay at a secluded lodge deep in the mountains. Christa and her boyfriend, Kiernan, are looking forward to solidifying their relationship further but quickly become lost in the woods after their bus becomes stuck. Christa is lucky to find her way to the secluded cabin where the rest of the group have found shelter...but is lucky the right word?!?!
When their tour group guide comes up missing and his head is found skewered into the tree outside their cabin, the group questions who among them is a murderer?? All means of escape and safety are one by one compromised and Christa begins to realize that none of them are getting out alive!! Who's head will be found in the tree next? Did someone lure this group here just to murder them one by one? Has Christa's past mistakes finally come back for redemption?

Wow!! What a ride this was!! I've enjoyed all the books I've read by Darcy Coates but this is by far my favorite! More horror mystery than paranormal as my other Coates reads have been told from the point of view of Christa. I really enjoyed the character development of this book and thought the whole build up from beginning to end was great and I could picture this as a screenplay for an awesome movie! Save this book for your snowed in, winter days!! You won't regret it!!

Thank you Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. whoa baby! I couldn’t put this book down. Twists and turns and then more twists and turns. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a great suspense novel, full of thrills and chills.

Huge fan of Ms. Coates so I read everything she writes. This book was completely different from her usual ghost stories but it did not disappoint. I couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting. I see it being turned into a major motion picture and the author has found a new genre.

Dead of Winter
By: Darcy Coates
Publication Date: July 11, 2023

Christa is nervous but excited to go on a winter trip with her recent boyfriend. She has been a bit sheltered since a tragic event she was involved in. They load up on a bus with other guests to head to a remote resort but a series of unfortunate events have left the group to seek shelter in a small hunting cabin as a big winter storm barrels down on them. Something sinister is at play though as the days go on and people keep turning up dead. Who is doing this and are they just a random group of strangers on a trip or do they have more in common?

This book left me in chills, literally! With the hot summer days here this book was a refreshing break from the heat. This was a classic locked room mystery that was intense and shocking. The many characters had unique voices that were well developed. It was gory in the best possible way and kept me guessing. This is definitely a must read summer book!

I loved this book. Very suspenseful and unpredictable. Lots of twists and turns. I couldn't put it down. Highly recommend.

A tense, chilling thriller. Strangers heading to a remote winter getaway are waylaid by a storm. Separated from her boyfriend while hiking, Christa is relieved to find the group taking shelter in a cabin. When people start getting picked off by a killer, relief is replaced by fear and suspicion.
Everyone becomes a suspect but the truth is more shocking than anything imagined.

This book was riveting. The characters were complex and their relationships believable and built over the course of the plot. The arc of the storyline was pitched well, and details were fed to the reader at a pace to maintain interest. Highly recommend!

This is such a cool book! Pun intended? Maybe. The twists and turns come in strong and frequent and it was refreshing that they all worked. It isn’t perfect and left me a bit cold (yep another pun) in the end, but it certainly worth the time.

To my knowledge this is Darcy Coates' first non-paranormal horror/thriller book, and honestly I think she does a fairly decent job of pulling it off. The setting she's chosen, a secluded winter cabin in the middle of a blizzard, is one that works well, and has the added bonus of giving a sensible reason for a lack of cellphone service that in the modern age can end up feeling overly contrived because it's a necessity but not exactly something that is easy to make work. Her main character is likeable but not pathetic or useless and is carrying enough of a backstory to keep you curious about her, and maybe even a little bit wary. I will say that major genre fans (or locked room mysteries mostly) won't be overly shocked at the big who-done-it reveal, but there are enough twists and turns to keep it interesting, and no one will be able to say that her kills aren't enough to chill your blood. I will say the number of characters was pushing the limit of how many people I could keep track of, even though they were all fairly well differentiated, but that, along with my guessing the big reveal, were really my only gripes. I do think it might have been possible to cut a few things out to trim up the page count just a little, but she certainly didn't have a problem keeping the momentum going, and while a few things were a little convenient I'm not sure it's possible to write a story like this and not include such things, so she certainly doesn't loose points there in my eyes. I'm actually surprised this is only the second novel of hers that I've read (although I have my eye on a few more), but either way she's an author I've come to be curious about, and I have no doubt I'll be hand-selling this one to many a customer without feeling bad about it in the slightest. Sometimes you just want an ice cold slasher to keep you cold during those hot summer nights, and this certainly fits the bill.

Dead of Winter is the first Darcy Coates novel that I finished and I was impressed. This "locked door" mystery is Coates' interpretation of And Then There Were None with violent and sadistic undertones. Flew threw the second half of this one- would recommend to any horror fans.

Darcy Coats is always a win. This is no different. Thank you for the opportunity to read this. Will post a full review on my Instagram and goodreads

I was racing to finish this book and I throughly enjoyed all the twists and turns that occurred. However, I was able to guess the who and what early on in the story. Even though I don’t mind spoilers, and will still read a book until the end just to more about the characters, I wanted the book to be one way (to make it more interesting) when it actually was another way and less interesting. Still a book I’d recommend to those who enjoy thrillers/mysteries.

This was my fault for not noticing that this author usually writes horror stories, but I got totally creeped out! I normally don't do horror, but I love thrillers and psychological thrillers. Great writing!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of this book.

If you're looking for a fast-paced book that you can curl up with in a snow storm, this one's for you! The plot is Christie-esque: 10 people are stranded at a remote cabin in a snowstorm and, one by one, someone is picking them off. While the culprit might be guessable before the end, it's still a fun (albeit gory!) ride until you get there. The sense of claustrophobia and paranoia is real and well-developed throughout the novel. The character development is, as might be expected in such a novel, on the flat side, but once you get going, you quickly get at least a sense of each character so it's easy to follow along.

This is a page-turner for sure and one that would be great fun on your next getaway to the mountains!

A good mix of mystery and horror, the "Dead of Winter" is perfect for anyone who enjoys suspense with just a touch of horror movie gore. I definitely felt this book dragged on quite a bit and I knew who was behind it all from the beginning. However the unraveling of motives kept me intrigued enough to finish the book. I enjoyed the read and will continue to follow Darcy Coates new works.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in advance of publication.